How much forage should a stabled horse have?

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MiCsarah

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My pony next week will be going onto box rest after an operation and I want to make sure that he gets the right amount of forage but not too much to make hm fat as dont want any excess weight on his healing limbs. He is 14.2 and around 435kg cobby type. He will get a mixture of hay, hayledge and alfafa to keep it varied.
 
My youngster is on box rest after 10 weeks of training, so very fit. He is also easily bored and currently working his way through the full range of stable vices.

I have gone with the ad lib forage, but due to the nature of his injury and the treatment that he is having, he has to be treated as a laminitic.

My solution has been to soak all haylage for 12 hours, to extract most of the sugar. What remains should be only the fibre. This seems to be working at the moment. I didn't want to get into a situation where he was without forage, as empty stomachs in a grazing animal would increase the risk of gastric ulcers.

It's all a balancing act, really!
 
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